Tuesday, December 20, 2005
TESTING...AGAIN
This is a test...I have been unable to view my blog. I can access it through my blogger dashboard but not by its address. Has anyone else had this problem or is it just my computer? I'm publishing this post to see if it shows up.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
A CHRISTMAS STORY
I received this in an email and thought it was good enough to share:
'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the town,
not a sign of Baby Jesus was anywhere to be found.
The people were all busy with Christmastime chores
like decorating and baking and shopping in stores.
No one sang "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed".
Instead, they sang of Santa dressed up in bright red.
Mama watched Martha Stewart, Papa took a short nap
as hour upon hour the presents they'd wrap.
When what from the TV did they suddenly hear?
But an ad...which told of a big sale at Sears.
So away to the mall they all flew like a flash...
buying things on credit and others with cash.
And as they made their way home from their trip to the mall,
did they think about Jesus? Oh no...not at all.
Their lives were so busy with their Christmastime things,
no time to remember Jesus, the King of all Kings.
There were presents to wrap and cookies to bake,
how could they stop and remember who died for their sake?
To pray to the Savior...they had no time to stop
because they needed more time to "shop 'til they dropped".
On WalMart! On K-Mart! On Target! On Penneys!
On Hallmark! On Zales! A quick lunch at Denny's!
From the big stores downtown to the stores at the mall
they would dash away, dash away, and visit them all!
And up on the roof there arose such a clatter
As grandpa hung icicle lights up on his brand new stepladder.
He hung lights that would flash, he hung lights that would twirl;
yet he never once prayed to Jesus...Light of the World.
Christ's eyes...how they twinkle! Christ's spirit...how merry!
Christ's love...how enormous! Our burdens He'll carry!
So instead of being busy, overworked, and uptight
let's put Christ back in Christmas and enjoy some good nights.
Merry Christmas, my friends.
'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the town,
not a sign of Baby Jesus was anywhere to be found.
The people were all busy with Christmastime chores
like decorating and baking and shopping in stores.
No one sang "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed".
Instead, they sang of Santa dressed up in bright red.
Mama watched Martha Stewart, Papa took a short nap
as hour upon hour the presents they'd wrap.
When what from the TV did they suddenly hear?
But an ad...which told of a big sale at Sears.
So away to the mall they all flew like a flash...
buying things on credit and others with cash.
And as they made their way home from their trip to the mall,
did they think about Jesus? Oh no...not at all.
Their lives were so busy with their Christmastime things,
no time to remember Jesus, the King of all Kings.
There were presents to wrap and cookies to bake,
how could they stop and remember who died for their sake?
To pray to the Savior...they had no time to stop
because they needed more time to "shop 'til they dropped".
On WalMart! On K-Mart! On Target! On Penneys!
On Hallmark! On Zales! A quick lunch at Denny's!
From the big stores downtown to the stores at the mall
they would dash away, dash away, and visit them all!
And up on the roof there arose such a clatter
As grandpa hung icicle lights up on his brand new stepladder.
He hung lights that would flash, he hung lights that would twirl;
yet he never once prayed to Jesus...Light of the World.
Christ's eyes...how they twinkle! Christ's spirit...how merry!
Christ's love...how enormous! Our burdens He'll carry!
So instead of being busy, overworked, and uptight
let's put Christ back in Christmas and enjoy some good nights.
Merry Christmas, my friends.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
COME THOU LONG EXPECTED JESUS
Every December, for the past nineteen years, our family has anticipated the celebration of Jesus's birth by setting up our nativity scene in the center of a candle-ring graced with evergreen sprigs and lit by four candles; three of them purple, one pink. We light the first purple candle during supper on the first Sunday in Advent, followed by the second and third purple candles on the successive Sunday evenings. We light the pink candle the fourth Sunday as the Christ candle.
We also have a wall hanging we put up that pictures the background for the manger scene. Each night there is a figure to be put on the background, affixed there with Poster Tack. It begins with a small city of Bethlehem on the horizon followed by lambs, sheep, a cow, donkey, camels, shepherds, Wise Men, Mary, Joseph, a bright star, angels, and finally, the Baby Jesus. This Advent set came with a pamphlet that contains a scripture verse and prayer to be read for each figure.
We have been observing Advent this way since Ramsey's second Christmas and it is looked forward to every year. Except this year, Ramsey, who is going on twenty has complained that it is getting boring. We told him, "Tough. You loved this when you were growing up the same way your sisters and brother do. We look forward to continuing the tradition with our grandchildren." (We got an eyeroll on that one.) Funny thing is, Ramsey still wants to be the one to put up certain "favorite" pieces, ie., the star, the Gloria Angel, the shepherd boy, and, of course, the Baby in the manger. And, boy, if someone sticks one of the figures in the "wrong" spot he is quick to correct them. When we kid him about having the scene layout memorized from the picture on the front of the pamphlet he retorts grumpily, "Well, yeah, after all these years it's burned in my brain." That's a good thing.
And he's already staked his claim to putting up the final, crowning piece this year: the Baby Jesus.
We also have a wall hanging we put up that pictures the background for the manger scene. Each night there is a figure to be put on the background, affixed there with Poster Tack. It begins with a small city of Bethlehem on the horizon followed by lambs, sheep, a cow, donkey, camels, shepherds, Wise Men, Mary, Joseph, a bright star, angels, and finally, the Baby Jesus. This Advent set came with a pamphlet that contains a scripture verse and prayer to be read for each figure.
We have been observing Advent this way since Ramsey's second Christmas and it is looked forward to every year. Except this year, Ramsey, who is going on twenty has complained that it is getting boring. We told him, "Tough. You loved this when you were growing up the same way your sisters and brother do. We look forward to continuing the tradition with our grandchildren." (We got an eyeroll on that one.) Funny thing is, Ramsey still wants to be the one to put up certain "favorite" pieces, ie., the star, the Gloria Angel, the shepherd boy, and, of course, the Baby in the manger. And, boy, if someone sticks one of the figures in the "wrong" spot he is quick to correct them. When we kid him about having the scene layout memorized from the picture on the front of the pamphlet he retorts grumpily, "Well, yeah, after all these years it's burned in my brain." That's a good thing.
And he's already staked his claim to putting up the final, crowning piece this year: the Baby Jesus.
Friday, December 09, 2005
WREATH ROUNDUP
Well, it's that time of the year again. Yep, the holidays, Christmas and the New Year. All the preparation and planning. And, for our family, this includes making wreaths. For a few years now we've made them to give as gifts. I may be slightly prejudiced, but our wreaths are extraordinarily nice. We use a variety of native greens: double balsam is the mainstay with accent pieces of cedar, spruce, princess pine, and white pine. They are decorated with a burgundy or red velour bow, a few pine cones with their tips painted white, and clusters of red berries. Not too cluttered or gawdy. I would post a picture of one, but I don't have the ability (know-how & technology) to do that yet...maybe next year.
Which brings me to the next part of this post: Our gift wreaths have been well received and appreciated by friends and family; so well, that people have encouraged us to make them for sale. That hasn't been feasible until now. Our wreaths are made with a steel clamp-ring form. This requires using a clamp machine and in the past I've borrowed one from a friend. But I've had to wait until she was done making her wreaths and this often wasn't until right before Christmas...too late for me to make them for sale.
This year we invested in our own clamp machine, a case of 100 clamp-ring forms, a case of ribbon, six spools of florist wire, and a case each of red berries and white berries. To the tune of about $400 (gulp!). As with any business, there's always an initial start-up cost. We weren't able to make this investment until this month, which is really too late for any great sales promotion for this holiday season, but we are planning to launch it as a family business next year.
Making wreaths is a lot of work; starting with going out to harvest all the different evergreen boughs (which requires the purchase of a permit). Then clipping the the boughs to size, bundling four or five pieces of balsam with an accent piece, such as princess pine or cedar, placing it in the form and closing the clamps with the machine. Repeat that process thirteen more times for each wreath and trim any stray pieces to give a uniform appearance. Then comes decorating; the worst part is making the bow. I hate making bows! To get a nice bow, I use about nine feet of 2 5/8 inch wide ribbon and loop, twist, tie, and pray through gritted teeth. Sometimes they turn out...sometimes I start over. After I attach the ribbon to the wreath with florist wire, I wire on pine cones and berries. Voila! Takes about an hour from start to finish for one wreath, not counting cutting and clipping boughs and making the dreaded bow.
Ideally, one should harvest the boughs and other greens before we have much snow (it's ALOT of work digging princess pine out from under the snow...like Mark and I did this year), but if you get the boughs too early they dry out, turn brown, and needles fall like rain. So you have to watch the forecast to beat the weather, be in production by early to mid-November to have wreaths ready by deer season and Thanksgiving.
All of this takes place simultaneously with everything else that goes on in our family's life: homeschooling, work, church activities, chores, hunting, and holiday preparations...with a little sleep interspersed here and there! Thankfully, we have four kids who are willing to help make this possible and it didn't hurt to give them a little incentive...any money made from the sale of wreaths will go toward a family vacation.
We'll need one.
Which brings me to the next part of this post: Our gift wreaths have been well received and appreciated by friends and family; so well, that people have encouraged us to make them for sale. That hasn't been feasible until now. Our wreaths are made with a steel clamp-ring form. This requires using a clamp machine and in the past I've borrowed one from a friend. But I've had to wait until she was done making her wreaths and this often wasn't until right before Christmas...too late for me to make them for sale.
This year we invested in our own clamp machine, a case of 100 clamp-ring forms, a case of ribbon, six spools of florist wire, and a case each of red berries and white berries. To the tune of about $400 (gulp!). As with any business, there's always an initial start-up cost. We weren't able to make this investment until this month, which is really too late for any great sales promotion for this holiday season, but we are planning to launch it as a family business next year.
Making wreaths is a lot of work; starting with going out to harvest all the different evergreen boughs (which requires the purchase of a permit). Then clipping the the boughs to size, bundling four or five pieces of balsam with an accent piece, such as princess pine or cedar, placing it in the form and closing the clamps with the machine. Repeat that process thirteen more times for each wreath and trim any stray pieces to give a uniform appearance. Then comes decorating; the worst part is making the bow. I hate making bows! To get a nice bow, I use about nine feet of 2 5/8 inch wide ribbon and loop, twist, tie, and pray through gritted teeth. Sometimes they turn out...sometimes I start over. After I attach the ribbon to the wreath with florist wire, I wire on pine cones and berries. Voila! Takes about an hour from start to finish for one wreath, not counting cutting and clipping boughs and making the dreaded bow.
Ideally, one should harvest the boughs and other greens before we have much snow (it's ALOT of work digging princess pine out from under the snow...like Mark and I did this year), but if you get the boughs too early they dry out, turn brown, and needles fall like rain. So you have to watch the forecast to beat the weather, be in production by early to mid-November to have wreaths ready by deer season and Thanksgiving.
All of this takes place simultaneously with everything else that goes on in our family's life: homeschooling, work, church activities, chores, hunting, and holiday preparations...with a little sleep interspersed here and there! Thankfully, we have four kids who are willing to help make this possible and it didn't hurt to give them a little incentive...any money made from the sale of wreaths will go toward a family vacation.
We'll need one.
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